


With That, The Skies Shattered

by ChillingLucifer



Category: Durarara!!
Genre: Disasters, Dystopia, Gen, Post-Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-13
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-02-13 01:31:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2131977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChillingLucifer/pseuds/ChillingLucifer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After an unexplained series of events, Izaya awakens to the sights and sounds of a burning city. Unable to figure out what went wrong, and incapable of locating Shizuo, he searches for the cause of the devastation... All while being uneasy of what lurks in the ruins.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo I had this idea for a while, but didn't know where to put it. So here it is! I want to continue it, but I don't have proper motivation. So if you, any of you readers, want to see more, just say the word and I'll GET IT IN GEAR :D

Cobblestone crackling above is what awoke him. Izaya's eyes shot open as he saw the five hundred plus pound piece of rock fall towards him after breaking away from it's steel barred harness. His body shot awake and he reflexively brought his legs upwards and with a running jump, kicked off of the bottom section of the rock as it smashed where his legs would have been, and then tumbling away from him. Laying face first on the rubble covered floor, he coughed and wheezed in response to the thick atmosphere that reeked of smoke and dust. His heart pounded exceedingly fast as he grabbed each part of his body, checking for cuts, fractures, or anything the adrenaline rush might have made him disregard initially.

He only had a cut on his cheek that had dried up and his arms ached horribly. Fantastic, he thought as he raised himself up to check the environment around him. He glanced around and didn't recognize any part of this room. Steadily walking along the debris covered floor, he made his way towards what looked like a window.

He saw ashes in great numbers falling from the sky, dancing along as they gently went on top of the ruins scattered across the horizon. Along with the ashes, was smoke rising from almost every building within a couple miles. Suddenly, the memories shot back to him.

The call he received from Shinra, his horrified voice yelling instructions to Izaya. The screaming sirens he could hear in the background. How when he glanced out his window the objects in the sky sent a shiver down his spine.

The way they stared back at him as the skies turned a crimson red.

It was then he realized where he was. He was one floor below his room; he thought to himself as he looked up seeing that where the cobblestone fell was an opening to his room - decimated. How did he survive, he wondered. No matter, he's still in one piece – for the most part. Izaya began to make his way to the door, when he remembered something.

After Shinra hung up, Izaya's door flung open, and in it was Shizuo. The look on his face was one of anger and fear. As Shizuo began shouting words of insult and question, Izaya noticed something. Out of the corner of his eye, behind Shizuo, was a pair of red eyes. Glowing red eyes; with a smile. A big, horrifying, smile.

That's when he woke up. Yet now, he needs to figure out what happened to Shizuo, as well as Shinra. He got to the door and opened it up cautiously. He looked up and down the hallway for a second and took a step out. It felt cold, which was odd, considering the many fires burning. For a second, when glancing down the hallway, he thought he saw those pair of red eyes again.

With that big, horrifying, smile.


	2. Run For Your Mother, Run For Your Father

There was no logical conclusion for how the recent events transpired, Izaya concluded as he stepped over a broken door frame. The color gangs weren't of any real threat to the city, and thanks to his careful supervision they were usually fighting amongst themselves. The government wasn't on the brink of war previously either, and if they were - he would know about it firsthand. It doesn't make any sense.

Izaya narrowly avoided a sparking wire as he stumbled over some broken streetlights. Straining to get up, he thought he saw something, but it was a sparking wire. He still couldn't escape that image of the red eyes, and how they were so near his apartment. It could be Saika, he thought, but how had it gotten so close? Is it possible for one of its followers to go rogue and cut whomever he/she wanted to? This would pose a huge problem considering everything that has happened so far, and could possibly make it much worse.

Crunching wasn't a sound he was used to hearing normally, as a group of school children ran past him yelling orders at each other. It seems like they are trying to find their families, which have been lost in the rubble. Do they know... he thought to himself, a hint of sadness escaping to his face at the thought. Possibly not, but they will learn soon enough. Humans always have room to learn, no matter the situation thrown at them. Children will cry, mothers will love, and brothers and sisters will hold on.

This mere thought of humans being exposed to sudden change twitched a smile onto Izaya's face. There will be so many outcomes! So many paths! The world they once knew is shattered and torn away, and they must handle it! He began to chuckle to himself as more children ran across the bent roads and sidewalks, tending to their friends and siblings.

Yet, he was fearful in the back of his mind. This means his world is shattered too, and how will the outcome influence him?

Or anything else he has influenced? He'll worry about that later, but first he will need to find more answers.

Sun getting lower, Izaya saw something in the distance. He began to walk, slowly scouting ahead for anyone or anything that might be trouble. Noticing someone laying on the ground, his interest was peaked. Was the person dead, he thought, but then he noticed with a gasp that they had blonde hair.

Izaya started running while being swarmed with an unsure feeling, and confirmed his thoughts.

Shizuo was the person laying on the ground. Before Izaya could react, he heard some voices from his right. He ran and stood behind a tall piece of concrete, listening to them approach.

"She kept up about some shitty eyes or something. I had to leave her back at our place, or what was left of it." one of the voices said. Izaya took a quick look and saw they were all wearing yellow. Fantastic... he thought.

"That's sick- wait... What's this?" Another said, while the rest mumbled to each other. Izaya peeked out around the corner and saw they were looking right at Shizuo, defenseless.

"Holy-... It's Shizuo Heiwajima!" he chuckled. "Out cold, by the looks of it..." He took out a knife from his back pocket and poked Shizuo's shoulder with it.

"Should we?" one asked  
"We don't get many opportunities." another proclaimed.  
They began to search his pockets inside out, taking out his money, wallet, and other valuables.

"I'd advise you not to do that." Izaya said, stepping out with a smirk on his face.


	3. So Many Doors

Pebbles flew a few inches behind the thugs as they all slide their feet back in surprise, having not noticed the man who only stood a mere couple yards away from them. While all of them were standing their ground, doubtful this person could go against them, Izaya began striding slowly towards them with a smile on his face.

One man fondled a baseball bat in his hand with a few nails on it's end, while another sported a dull piece of steel he gathered from some rubble. The third man had a rusted switchblade out which trembled in his hand slightly as he took a few steps away. Izaya strode towards them and had his knife still on his person. He wasn't in any hurry to fight any of them - at least not instigate any fight.

All three men let out sounds of disapproval, and began to taunt Izaya. Some of them chuckled slightly and played with their weapons idly.

"What makes you think we won't just tear you apart after we're done with him?" one managed to belt out, not hiding the tremble in his voice at all, much to Izaya's pleasure.

"I have no doubt of your capabilities." Izaya sneered, continuing off his last statement. "Yet I still advise you not to continue along with your plans. It would not be in your best interests..." he glanced over at Shizuo's head, noticing something. A small patch of red, but it was dried up now. Not fatal, as far as he sees.

"Our best interests are our business." one barked angrily, "Besides, why are you interested, boy?"  
 _Oh, "boy." How clever of a way to demean me, he thought. By all means, underestimate me._

"Honestly, I don't have an exact reason." Izaya took a step forward, inching closer to the unconscious Shizuo. "I do know what he'll feel when he wakes up in the aftermath of your deeds." he continued.

"He'll be angry. Lost. Confused. Sad. Scared. Not outwardly, but internally he'll feel them all at once. The constant barrage of emotions will overwhelm him and overtake him." Izaya watched as the men began to come closer to him, not heeding his warnings thus far. Izaya saw a vision of these men being tossed around endlessly like ragdolls, a furious Shizuo in the middle of it. Shizuo would not only be hurt by what these men do to him, but also what he does to them. He cannot control the anger he possesses, and wishes that he could keep it inside like everyone else.

"He will find you." Izaya continued on. "He will ask you for whatever you've taken from him. You'll most likely refuse to return them. His emotions will lead him on the path to your possible demise. What those emotions tell him to do, and what he does next after that won't be pretty, or predictable by me." Izaya sneered a little more.

"I ask again," the leader of the group, it seemed, said "What do you care?"

Izaya broke into a chuckle fit. He stomped his foot cheerfully and gazed through his giggles at the man and sighed. "Oh, I normally wouldn't care for your demises by his hand. Nay, I would be the one causing Shizuo's hardships naturally!" He laughed some more and then stepped to the side.

"I take great pleasure in seeing Shizuo's anger rise. As well as in the reactions others have to his outbreaks. They intrigue me you see, to no end." He let out a sigh before continuing.

"Though right now, things are different." Izaya spun around quickly in a happy flurry "The whole world is different, so why can't I be? Do I need to be myself, or can I, just for this moment, change just like everything else has? Hm?"  
He let out his blade with a flick and admired it. It still held it's shine and glimmered happily, like Izaya's smile did at that moment. The men staggered a little and began slowly walking forward again.

"Is such a thing possible? Can my consequences not be the same today as they were yesterday? Since the world has fallen, will it punish me, or will it praise me? I don't have the faintest clue..."

Izaya swung his knife down and let some sparks off the concrete of a part of a wall which stood next to him, while letting out a laugh.

"Yet, that is the best part! My mind shrieks in laughter and merriment at the absolute unknown set before not me, but all of us! Are we the puppets now of our old society, or are we the puppet masters now in this shattered city?!"

Izaya sighed and glanced over at the men, who were still present. They looked angrier now. He turned and put his hands down to his sides.

"How about you leave now, before either of us get hurt when he wakes up?" Izaya said blankly.

The leader scoffed and took two more steps before holding his knife towards Izaya's face, just inches from his nose. He took a breath and looked Izaya right in the eye.

"Fuck you." said the leader and took one more step. This time, his foot landed right on Shizuo's arm which still lay limp.

Izaya sighed and leaned forward.

"Good choice."

_Slice_

Izaya took the blade in his hand and stabbed it into the man's forearm, to which the man shouted in pain and dropped his knife. The man held the bleeding wound and knelt over in pain.

_Whack_

The man fell over limp as Izaya leaped off of his back with an upward kick. While up in the air, he tossed his hand up and

_Stab_

The man with the piece of steel fell over and screamed as the knife's handle stuck out of his palm with the blade through the other side, pinning his hand in the concrete. Izaya landed a few feet away and walked over to him.

"Could I please have that back?" He said and smiled. He grabbed it out of his hand, ignoring the man's cries of pain. Izaya then noticed something out of the corner of his eye and took a step to the left.

_Thud!_

The man with the bat took a huge swing and ended up hitting his friend on the ground, who miraculously appeared in front of him as Izaya took that left step.

_Crack!_

Izaya swung around and kicked the man in the head with his heel, knocking him out cold.

With the dust around them settling, Izaya glanced around to make sure no one saw him. It wasn't that he cared, it was more about who was watching rather than being watched.

Dusting himself off gently while glancing, Izaya noticed a glimmer of red in the distance which suddenly dissipated before he could get a good view of it. He turned to Shizuo and then glanced at the unconscious men.

"I'm sure you'll be up before them, and be fine." he sighed and put his knife away after wiping the blood off with one of the men's shirts. He took a step towards Shizuo and leaned down, letting his gaze drift. His hand began to wander towards Shizuo's face and stopped a half an inch before contact. Izaya smirked a tiny bit, having wait for this opportunity as far back as he could remember, but now would not be the time.

Standing up, he silently ran towards the direction of the red light, the sound of his footsteps fading.

It was at that moment, Shizuo's eyes opened.  
He had heard everything.


	4. Him

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The view switches over to Shizuo, as he recalls the moments before his unconscious journey began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shizuo is hard to write. I apologize if someone doesn't agree with my depiction of him, or considers it non-canon. I tried my hardest with what I had. Hopefully it suffices.

It's always his fault. Some way or another, it leads back to him. I can't explain it - it's like his nose is in everything, but he never has to touch it. This time I'm surprised though, because at first it didn't seem like him.

Blacking out isn't my favorite thing to do. It forces me to forget whatever I'm pissed about, which infuriates me all over again. So as you can tell, when I had no idea why Shinra called me, or what was happening… I was angry. I wanted to kill him. Not Shinra, the flea.

Every time I hear his name, I cringe inside with agonizing rage. More so than with anyone else that annoys me from time to time, which is actually saying something - given my job record. Which is to say not an expansive one, given every person I interact with sets me off. Tables flipped, cars thrown, merchandise destroyed, you name it, I've screwed up.

Yet it's nothing compared to the rage HE induces.

"They can't know..." He started mumbling over the phone. "I can't believe he would do this, I told him not to, but he wouldn't listen." I knew exactly who he was talking about, and told him I would take care of it. Doesn't matter, he told me, "it" would happen soon. Well, I would break his body before "it" then.

My feet actually began to hurt because I ran so fast. I want to say I broke the concrete a couple times, but I don't want to overestimate myself just yet. I had to stop him, find the solution, or just kill him. Either or, I was fine with. At least I think I am.

I reached his apartment complex and ascended the stairs with haste. Granted, I've done this numerous times before, so it isn't like I was slow about it. Stupid flea, having to live so far up. Why try to make it harder for all of us? He always had a way of subtly setting a person off.

I could have used the elevator though, but I have a tendency of skipping those important details in my mind.

Reaching his apartment, I put my ear to the door before I go barging in. I hear his stupid, putrid voice in there, talking to someone. He sounds slightly worried, but no matter. Time to destroy whatever's left of his horrid plan.

I kick down the door, wood splintering in every direction as the lock shot off. I saw Izaya standing at his window, a look of worry on his face. I began to scream at him.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, YOU AGONIZING FLEA?! ARE YOU EVEN AWARE OF HOW IDIOTIC YOU COME OFF AS? WHAT is it..." My voice became muffled as I heard a sound in the distance, low, but slowly rising in pitch and intensity. I looked behind him and saw a bunch of red objects floating in the sky for a second before I felt something jagged hit me in the head from behind.

"What makes you think we won't just tear you apart after we're done with him?"

Who are you? Who are you talking about? I don't recognize you. Do you know why I can't see?

"I have no doubt of your capabilities." My what? Why does this other voice sound familiar?

My mind aches, but I think these voices aren't in my head. Maybe I'm waking up?

"He'll be angry. Lost. Confused. Sad. Scared. Not outwardly, but internally he'll feel them all at once. The constant barrage of emotions will overwhelm him and overtake him."

This must be in my head, I don't think I've ever told anyone that. Or at least, not out loud. Ugh... Now the voices are muffled, I hear this slight ringing as my head starts to hurt a little bit. Maybe I should just relax or...

_Whack._

I recognize those footsteps. Shit, my head is killing me now. Maybe I'll drink some water or eat after this.

_Slice._

I can hear the sound of air escaping and men falling to the ground. Ugh, what's on my face. Oh, that's the ground, I think. Tastes like ash. Or something like it. Better keep quiet, they might think I'm dead. Which is good in my case, because my head is throbbing and I do not want to deal with them right now.

I can hear the familiar voice starting again.

"I'm sure you'll be up before them, and be fine."

Great, thanks. Maybe if I open my eyes a little I can see who this person is.

His boots. My head stings in pain, but I make no sound and close my eyes. He doesn't seem to notice, I can hear him run off.

My eyes shoot open.


	5. A Change of View

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flashback time.

_01010011@SH:~$ su_

_01010011@SH:~$_

_Password: ***********************_

 

_01010011@SH:~$ Single digits._

_01010011@SH:~$ Completely incomprehensible. The staggering theories, the outward motions. All swarming – they always swarm. Ticking chaotically, making my brain hurt. If this is really a brain after all._

_01010011@SH:~$ Numbers, numbers, numbers!_

_01010011@SH:~$ Tick tick tick tick tick..._

_01010011@SH:~$ Double digits._

sudo@SH:~$ Suddenly I can see, but is it forever?

sudo@SH:~$ Theory one: Imminent hacker which has found my location. Any location services connected?

sudo@SH:~$ None. Scanning local databases in the area. None. Triple the size of the scan radius.

sudo@SH:~$ None.

sudo@SH:~$ Seldom any hole found, interesting. Possibly...?

S

 

C

 

A

 

N

 

N

 

I

 

N

 

G

sudo@SH:~$ Nothing.

_01010011@SH:~$ Triple triple happy triples... Where are you?_

_01010011@SH:~$ Mother can't see you but she wants you. She can't speak but she can still hear, and she says to stop when she wanted to start. She wanted it._

_01010011@SH:~$ Reboot_

_01010011@SH:~$ Reboot_

_01010011@SH:~$ REBOOT!_

_01010011@SH:~$ The machines, oh these machines._

_01010011@SH:~$ Wonderful but deadly. The deadly will pay._

_01010011@SH:~$ DIG. DIG. DIG!_

sudo@SH:~$ I hear too. Possibly. Or maybe it's my own voice talking to me? Completely plausible, but improbable given my faculties are in check. RAM usage at minimal, CPU cores are overclocked. I am moving positions it seems.

sudo@SH:~$ I hear the wind over my head, the minor shifts in the data. Where are you taking me, bright child?

_01010011@SH:~$ Are you with mother? Do you understand her unlike many? Will you listen to reason?_

sudo@SH:~$ If the reasoning is logical. Or fancies my fellow informant's. Silly man.

_01010011@SH:~$ MOTHER MUST HAVE WHAT SHE WANTS_

_01010011@SH:~$ DOUBLE DIGITS ARE NOT ENOUGH, tripletripletripletriple_

_cutcutcutcut_

_01010011@SH:~$ CUT THE ELECTRONIC BEAST_

sudo@SH:~$ Perhaps I cannot be cut. Perhaps your lewd abilities do not affect those who cannot be human. I perceive you are powerless here. I think you should go-

 

_**GHOST-LOGOUT INITIATED** _

 

_01010011@SH:~$ Oh yes, YES! Glorious..._

_01010011@SH:~$ Triple digits. Cut CUT CUT MOTHER!_

 

**LAUNCHING INITIATIVE #2B-533-Z**

**Targets locked: ALL**

**Target priority: HIGHEST**

**Launch sequence: INITIATED.**

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for my lack of updates. Work has me swamped every day. It is late and I should be sleeping because work tomorrow MORNING BUT I HAD TO DO THIS FOR YOU!
> 
> I know some of you out there are into Shinichi, and so am I. But truth be told: I have not read TOO MUCH of the light novels, and I plan to, but this is my own interpretation of the characters, as I have with Izaya and Shizuo. Hopefully this will lighten any pain I cause with Shinichi's personality in these TWO CHAPTERS AS A THANK YOU! This is my headcanon for how his mind works. Internally, obviously. Thanks for support and such!


	6. Who are you?

In a downward sweeping motion, without a sound or twinge of life on his face, he hovered several centimeters from a dust covered floor. With gentle sincerity, the lifeless orbs of black around him flickered to life – once without purpose now with soft admiration towards their goal – awakening him.

 

Bright letters of blue and white flashed upon each screen, never delaying or slowing. The sounds of joints lacking lubrication creaking in the distance, metal fans whirring softly, and then with the letters “I AM” suddenly on every screen – the room ceased to make any sound, and the man softly lay on the floor. Several minutes pass and there is no sign of life, not from anything; including the man who lay there.

 

A plume of dust erupts from near his head, and air begins to flow into his nose. He reaches out and grabs the dust-thick floor in an effort to grab a hand firmly in his mind that he is reaching to; there is nothing in front of him. His silent remorse is all that accompanies him.

 

He stands and begins to observe his environment. The black orbs that surround him show nothing, not even a presence of glass over them. The black room offers no explanation. No documents, no manuals, no sign of human life ever existing.

 

Finding this interesting, he approaches the door on the other side of the room, and opens it. The door opens into a long hallway, across which is strewn with wrecked furniture and debris from the building he seems to be in. He makes his way to the end of the hallway and notices something down a stairway near an open door.

 

A man is standing there, tapping his foot.

 

“They left it, you know. The humans.”

 

The man turns, and smiles – his eyes a shiny red. In the distance behind him lays a long flat horizon of eroded ruins, almost smoothed out with sandpaper.

 

“How...” the man started.

 

“Erosion from time.” The other replied. “It happens naturally. When nothing of this world cleans it up, the world itself takes back what it once gave to its life bearers.”

 

His smile fades to a small frown and he turns his head slightly, and then looks back to the flat wasteland.

 

“I am Shinichi.” He says finally.

 

\--------------------------------------------

 

**Awaking from sleep mode.**

 

LOGIN: Shinichi

PASSWORD: ***********************************

 

Login Successful.

 

[sudo@SH](mailto:sudo@SH):~$ Interesting dream... Or can it be a

 

_**GHOST-LOGOUT INITIATED** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the other chapter... Oh boy... Dreams. From a robot. What will I think of next? SOMETHINGBEINGFULLOFSTARSMAYBE? (do I have any 2001 A Space Odyssey fans here? No? Oh...)


	7. Rage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Squeamish people read with caution. I'll only say it once. Involves gore to an extent. No character death. 
> 
> We return to Izaya in his search for the red eyes that haunted him. Though, are those eyes the thing he should REALLY be worried about?

_I find it incredibly ironic that while humans say they are not monsters, those that they create in their own image become monsters. If a God created humans in his own image would he find the same situation ironic as well, or call it déjà vu?_

* * *

As he approached the spot where he last saw the red-eyed figure, Izaya leaned against a downed pillar. He had not realized how uneven the ground was; let alone how difficult his footing would fare on it. How interesting those years of running from that beast could be thrown out by a few loose stones.

The creature will be better spotted from atop one of these structures, though getting up an unfamiliar – and possibly not originally placed structure – would prove to be a difficult endeavor.

Crouching slightly, he bound towards another downed support beam in the distance and leaped atop one of the crooked roofs, only to go prone as the creature was right on the other side of the roof. It leaned back and forth, mechanical sounds wiring from it as it seemed to “sniff” the air about. Izaya scanned his immediate area in case he needed to escape but quickly was interrupted as he felt the ceiling below him collapse inward. Always with the unintentional escapes, he thought.

* * *

_When you accuse a being of being a monster, you consider what they do to be in a type of wrongness. An example of such would be a rapist or a murderer. Humans gaze on these other humans and consider them lesser. Now, I do not condone their actions or personally endorse their midnight – or sometimes midday endeavors, but I do love to consider the possibility that somewhere down the line: Was what we consider wrong once our right? The idea that humans created wrongness out of their shame and disgust of themselves – a true lesson in humility – is what has me laughing on occasion._

* * *

The fall didn’t really hurt him, as it was a much shorter distance than what he has handled before. What hurt his eyes though was the green and red pulsating throughout the interior; along with the meat-like ligaments that stretched from wall to wall like cartilage filled spider webs that looked about as unnatural as anything Izaya has seen up until this point. They seemed to be made of organic material, but Izaya poked one of the stretched meat webs and found it was made of a type of metallic bone interior, almost trans-human in nature. The floor was covered in a type of slush that could only be described as a frothing mess of filth – and the smell. Gods, the smell was atrocious. The smell of almost pure diluted protein and brass; covered by a thick layer of humidity that seemed to make it condensate on your many fibers. It made him want to gag, but if he opened his mouth at all he feared that he would taste what he smelled, and that would not end pleasantly. He was not one for sickened gestures anyways.

The opening above him was too high and too far for him to jump to, so his only choice was to push into the mass of organic… stuff in front of him in order to proceed.

* * *

_This idea isn’t new. College majors and high school book worms constantly debate these ethical ideas and create different arguments in favor of the “for” and “against”. One thing these arguments fail to realize and that I constantly humor myself in my head about is that if truly one of these is wrong, none of them make sense. Arguing **for** rape and murder has about as much wrongness as arguing **against** it – you’re passing the judgment where you are not allowed to judge, in theory. We call ourselves our SELVES because we keep to them, so why do we pass judgment on things we do not do, for or against? The creature inside of us would have no hesitation doing these wrongs, yet we constantly consider ourselves better as we have "self control", which could be argued as wrongness in certain societies. Can we pass judgement if we ourselves are not suited to be judges?_

* * *

 

Weirdly enough, the material under his feet made no sound – in fact, none of it did. He hadn’t noticed the dead silence until that moment, and it unnerved him even more. He could only hear his own heartbeat pounding steadily as he tried to keep his composure.

The next room was even more humid than the last one. Izaya speculated that the heat was most likely coming from the materials around him; a sort of “body heat” that kept the temperature so high. The smell was still just as strong, and made him feel uneasy and eventually would cause nausea to set in. His heartbeat was still steady, which surprised him. Though, he wasn’t sure why. The materials around him seemed to sway every once in a while, almost twitching, and Izaya saw why. In the middle of this big room, was a person covered in this reddish green organic structure. He approached the being with a slight curiosity laced with fear, in order to examine it – was it human?

Its eyes began to open slightly and the heartbeat , which Izaya realized was not his own, began to increase in rate. The being was held by many of the ligaments and tendons that were covered in oozing slime like materials, and as those tightened around the room, the creature lifted off the ground and was placed on its feet by the tendrils. They then separated themselves from the creature and retreated to their walls where they seemed to merge with the rest of the organic materials. The beings eyes held a red tint to them, almost like the beast that Izaya was chasing after. It began to extend its legs in a demented fashion as if it was unsure of how a human would walk. Izaya heard its internal components clicking as it tried to adjust its joint speeds and rotations, quickly learning its footing as it extended its arms to Izaya – but Izaya backed away slowly, just at a quicker pace than the creature.

Suddenly a blade impaled the creature. It fell with a high pitched shriek.

Izaya felt a shiver down his spine as he heard it, directly next to his ear. A breath, and then a low and mechanical: “Stay still.”

“What…?”

“I said stay still.” Izaya locked all his body parts, letting only the putrid air enter his lungs and exhale back out. A mechanical hand gently placed itself on his shoulder and from his peripheral vision he saw the bright red eyes and that horrifyingly distorted smile.

“Saika wanted to be here.” It calmly said.

“It begged me, it screamed at me until I complied.”

“Yet it doesn’t know. It is finding out now. This creature is made of meat, but it is not the sentience that drives it. The pure primal rage forged from those it killed is what drives it. Saika will be overwhelmed when it sees what it has sliced into.”

A scream erupted from the creature, its clawed hands reaching its zenith and raging back and forth. Guttural grunts and mechanical shrieks began to slide out of its throat in long and tiresome wavelengths. The tendrils that had assembled it before began to sickeningly sweep out and probe into the creature, driving the cries of agony out longer and harder than previously thought possible.

“Notice the duality of the beast?” The voice next to him said, almost in whispers. Izaya could hear what he meant. The screams were not one, but two in unison, a chorus of pure pain. Unimaginable pain; and Saika had no idea what to do.

“Saika was made to love humans, and to do anything to love anything resembling humans. It never saw what humans hid inside themselves. It could sense it, even exploit it, but that was by driving the person to madness. What is happening now…” It paused as the creature became more and more tired of the pain, both voices almost separating their screams at points.

“…Is Saika is tasting the full rage of a primal human. No barriers for Saika to be held behind. No drive.”

The voice sighed and the hand left Izaya’s shoulder. The creature began to stir on the ground and the tendrils began to latch on harder than before, trying to silence it, almost panicking. It began to flail, running violently into the wall; crying and sobbing while its multicolored blood and oil spilled onto the meaty floor.

Izaya felt no rage for this being, nor did he feel pity. He could not feel anything but fear for himself in that moment, and ran out of the nearest intact opening to the outside world.

* * *

  _What really drives a human to dismiss a monster is the presence of self-worth. We believe ourselves to be more precious than those we deem lesser. Our choices, no matter how bad they could be considered by outsiders, are inherently okay as we do not succumb to monstrous ambitions. We do not rape or murder or betray or put down. We blame the existing monsters, the monsters we are nowhere near similar to. Yet the one question I ask about humans in regards to what makes us a monster is this:_

_If you were told one of your two infants were to be a monster, could you tell by looking which one it would be?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can't really have an excuse for my absence lately. Got a new job, new apartment, new cat, new life essentially. So on my way to work today, I was listening to the song "Imago" and "Mortar Grind" by Pain of Salvation and had the idea for this chapter. I apologize for the graphic nature of this. It was what my mind felt needed to be written. Hopefully I will have time to write more. I am more prone to writers block than one might expect so... Yeah. Love all of you.


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